María Werlau, executive director of Archivo Cuba, described Cuba's situation this Thursday as that of a country emerging from a war that was never declared, but which devastated everything: infrastructure, education, and healthcare, in a interview with Tania Costa for CiberCuba published today, the day Raúl Castro turns 95.
"A country that is almost coming out of a war without there having been a war. The war of the dictatorship against its people that has devastated the nation, the infrastructure, everything. There is no education, there is no healthcare system," stated Werlau.
The researcher, whose organization has documented over 8,000 deaths linked to the regime since 1959, posed the question she considers central: how does one rebuild a country under such conditions?
"How do you rebuild that? Because the United States doesn't have a treasury that issues checks. In other words, it depends on Congress to allocate the funds," he pointed out.
Werlau warned that the reconstruction of Cuba will largely depend on the political will of Washington, and that such will is not guaranteed.
"I do believe that there needs to be significant oversight from the United States, and hopefully other democracies around the world that have expressed their concern for the Cuban people will join in. I hope it will be a multilateral effort, but we do not see that," he said.
The researcher was emphatic in stating that the international community has failed the Cuban people: "It has not supported the people of Cuba; it has supported the dictatorship of Cuba."
One of the most poignant moments of his intervention was the warning about the risk of Cuba becoming trapped in a permanent cycle of collapse, comparable to that of other failed states.
"We could be stuck in a cycle of chronic poverty like that of Haiti or Somalia," warned Werlau, referring to countries that have been trapped in this cycle for decades.
According to the researcher, the situation of the Cuban people has reached a point of extreme exhaustion that does not even allow for escape.
"I believe that the Cuban people are in such a dire situation that not even if they had the opportunity to set out on a raft to sea would they do it. First, because the United States, which is where they want to go, will not accept them. And second, because people do not have the means to build a raft, bring supplies, carry water, or have gasoline," he explained.
Werlau also criticized the media narrative surrounding Cuba, pointing out that even conservative outlets omit the essentials.
"That conservative media criticize the departure of Spanish companies from Cuba due to U.S. sanctions, without mentioning at all the state’s war against its own people, is truly astounding," he lamented.
The interview takes place in the context of the publication of the report "The Human Cost of the Raúl Castro Regime," prepared by Archivo Cuba, which documents over a thousand deaths since 2006, when Raúl Castro formally assumed power, in a country where the situation is described as much worse than in previous years.
Werlau concluded his speech with a direct appeal to the Cuban people: "Finally, I ask the Cuban people to open their hearts to God and together let us pray and show solidarity with one another to seek a solution to this."
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